I agree with your basic position here, Paul. However, I would like also to register that the duration of copyrights is currently just too fucking long.

You know, if you laid all the dead authors who still have copyright end to end around the world ... it would stink a lot.

Plus then you'd have zombies to contend with.

Hey, Zepol: kill yourself.

I need to read up on the settlement, does it take user privacy better into account, or would Google still by able to prostrate itself before the government with our logged reading lists at the drop of a hat?

So Cobbold's argument against this is basically "I'm confused and afraid"?

Weak.

@1. Just because you can't read, does not make this polst irrelevant. But thanks for providing me with some details of my new, least favorite cause.

@3, Save your material for open mic night so I can bombard you with rotten tomatoes and dog feces.

@1. Just because you can't read, does not make this polst irrelevant. But thanks for providing me with some details of my new, least favorite cause.

If James Frey is on their side, they must be wrong.

@10, you noticed that too? I kind of wondered why anyone would voluntarily be associated with him any more.

Aww! I really appreciated On the Media's report on the settlement, this week. Stellar, and I wouldn't have known about it otherwise. As a recovering history major, I cite authors all the time. Whither historians, if congress doesn't straighten this out with cogent legislation?

Opting in or out of the deal is completely irrelevant in terms of information sharing. Either these authors can benefit from possible internet searches or they can choose to let the pirates dictate the market. Either way, every single book from every single one of those companies will be freely shared on the internet, or at least in the library, so this constant fear that someone will "steal" "your" work is laughable. The state would love to make the claim that it can protect exclusive rights for the author's life +70 years, but the very idea that even 1/10th of that is possible with the internet makes me wonder if these people have any brains. You don't want people to access your work? DON'T FUCKING MAKE IT.